For five weeks this summer, a cat burglar scaled Chinatown fire escapes, crept into apartments, and made off with whatever cash, jewelry and electronics he could find.

But that cat has one fewer life now, police said after arresting Jeffrey Otero, 21, last Wednesday and charging him with 11 counts of burglary and one of weapon possession.

Court papers say Otero was collared wearing a gold watch from one of the heists and had a switchblade in his pocket.

The one-man crime wave went on from June 26 to July 31.

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Two young men bought money orders and got cash with a stolen debit card, cops said.

Shawn Nicholson, 19, went into the West 52nd Street post office in Hell’s Kitchen and bought three money orders last Thursday, court documents say.

He then allegedly gave the card to Anthony Allen, also 19, who went and got cash from a Sovereign Bank ATM.

In all, they scored $3,400 from the hijacked account, the records show.

Nicholson ’fessed up and said he was paid $100 for stealing the dough, according to court papers.

Cops also found a Chase credit card on Allen, who, along with Nicholson, was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Brooklyn

An impatient trucker was busted for hooking another’s trailer to his vehicle and then beating its owner with a metal pipe — just because the trailer was blocking the exit of a Williamsburg warehouse, authorities said.

Antonio Lopez, 36, disconnected his trailer at the warehouse on Scott and Johnson avenues last Thursday at 1:55 p.m., re-linked the other trailer and pushed it back 25 feet, damaging it in the process, sources said.

When that trailer’s owner ran over, Lopez attacked him, breaking the man’s right arm and bruising his arms and legs, the records show.

Lopez was arrested and charged with assault, menacing, unauthorized use of a vehicle and criminal possession of a weapon, the records add.

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A daring purse snatcher grabbed a woman’s wallet at a Bed-Stuy subway station, then made a mad dash across the tracks and a quick getaway on a Manhattan-bound C train.

The thug, who allegedly snuck up behind the 42-year-old woman at the Franklin Avenue station at 2:40 p.m. on July 1, was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with light-blue jeans and white sneakers.

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Police suspect it took more than one person to break into a Sheepshead Bay bank and ransack its safe-deposit vault over the weekend.

The cunning crooks got in through the roof of a neighboring business, let themselves down with a rope and busted through the wall to the TD Bank branch on Avenue U and East 16th Street, cops said.

Bank employees reported discovering the break-in yesterday.

Staten Island

A boozed-up driver claiming to be a cop was arrested after smashing up his car in Port Richmond, authorities said.

A Port Authority officer spotted the man near the vehicle — which was in flames — Sunday at 4:35 a.m. on Route 440 and Richmond Terrace.

The officer, who had been patrolling the Bayonne Bridge, quickly extinguished the flames, officials said.

But when he noticed a loaded gun and handcuffs in the car, Kenneth Doran, 32, told him that he, too, was with the police, stationed in Staten Island.

The doubtful PA officer checked and quickly discovered not only that the tipsy-looking Doran was not on the NYPD payroll but also that the firearm in question had been defaced, authorities said.

Doran later admitted that he had downed more than one drink before getting behind the wheel and that he knew his license had been suspended, court documents say.

He was arrested and taken to the Richmond University Medical Center for treatment of nonlife-threatening injuries.

He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, aggravated unlicensed driving and DWI, said a spokesman for DA Dan Donovan.

The Bronx

A thug on a bike knocked down a man running for his life by belting him in the arm with a baseball bat — just so he could snatch his cellphone, authorities said.

Lorenz Thorp, 16, was arrested and charged last Wednesday in the June 18 mugging, according to court documents.

He and his posse, who remain at large, surrounded the man on Bullard and Nereid avenues in Eastchester at 6:30 p.m., and one accomplice told him, “Let me see your phone,” the records show.

The man instead tried to run for it, but Thorp sped after him on his bicycle, bat in hand, according to court papers.

He grabbed the phone out of a pocket and a basketball right out of the man’s hands, then pedaled off, the records show.

He was charged with assault, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon.